Adobe Director: Don't Just Make Waves, Make Shockwaves

Posts tagged "Shockwave Xtra download"

I have used some custom xtras in my shockwave movie and this movie is published on the net. Every time my shockwave movie is viewed the custom xtra gets downloaded to the Application data folder and then my movie begins to play.

What will happen if I decide to make some changes to my custom xtra?

How can I update the custom xtra that got downloaded to thousands of people’s application data folder automatically without affecting the user experience?

These are some common questions which we come across in a typical scenario. This article addresses these questions. We assume that the user is already familiar with the technique of packaging the xtras with a certificate and with the other steps necessary for download of the Xtras.

In order to enable auto-update of my xtra, I need to update the version of the new xtra.

For example, if presently, my movie understands 1.0.0 to be the version of Xtra X for the movie to play. I need to make sure that I have incremented my version to 1.0.1.

Why is this important? Because it is based on this that I am going to tell my player to check if the Xtra is updated and play the movie only after updating the xtra.
Once this is done, I need to do the following to tell the shochwave player that the new xtra should be used for playing the movie.

• Package the new xtra and host it in the required location.

• Copy the updated xtra to the xtras folder inside the application folder.

• Update the Xtrainfo.txt so that it points to the new location where the packaged are placed. If it is the same location as the previous one then this step can be skipped.

• Open my movie in Director.

• Go to Modify > Movies > Xtras

• Select the custom xtra from the list and uncheck and check the “Download if needed” option.

• Republish the movie to shockwave.

The last 2 steps are very important since it tells the player about the latest version of the xtra that is required for the movie to play.

In the Application Data folder, we will notice that another folder called “New” is created and this xtra is downloaded to this location and on close of the current shockwave session\launch of the next shockwave session the latest xtra will be copied to the original folder.